Gathering analytic data using print drivers

BACKGROUND

0001Systems and methods herein generally relate to printing devices and printing systems, and more particularly to methods and systems that use the print driver to analyze and change the printing process.

0002When a document is submitted for printing, a print driver converts it into a print ready format, before sending it to the printer. The print controller does other processing on the document specified by the print ticket. However, several pieces of printing data such as application type and version, operating system and version, format conversion time, device the document originated from, etc., are available for captured for analytics purposes, but may not be captured.

SUMMARY

0003Exemplary methods herein begin by receiving, into one or more computerized devices, instructions to print one or more different printable items. The methods herein automatically activate one or more print drivers on the computerized devices in response to the instructions to print the different printable items, automatically process the different printable items into print-ready format files using the print driver, and automatically provide the driver-output print files to printing devices to allow the printing devices to print the different printable items.

0004The methods herein also use the print drivers to automatically record identifications (IDs) of the computerized devices and applications that provided the different printable items to the print drivers. The print-ready format files output by print drivers to printing engines/controllers are devoid of the IDs of the computerized devices and applications that provided the different printable items to the print driver, making it impossible for any of the engines/controllers to track analytics related to such computerized devices and applications. The methods herein automatically send the IDs of the computerized devices and applications that provided the different printable items to an analytics engine.

0005In addition, such methods can automatically provide a text entry field for capturing user comments through the print drivers. The methods herein can then automatically send the user comments the analytics engine and/or automatically post the user comments to at least one blog. A blog is a site (e.g., website) hosting related informational posts and the blog is accessible to the computerized devices over a wide area network (such as the Internet).

0006Also, such methods can use the print drivers to record additional information from the computerized devices and send such additional information to the analytics engine. The “additional information” can include, for example, vendor names corresponding to the applications, names and versions of operating systems running on the computerized devices, the time required to create the print-ready format files, characteristics of the printing devices, unused capabilities of the printing devices, etc.

0007Again, the print-ready format files are devoid of such “additional information” and devoid of the identifications of the computerized devices and applications providing the different printable items to the print driver, making it impossible for any of the printing systems that handle the print-ready format files (e.g., the print controller, the planning processor, all pre-press operations, all printing operations, all post-press operations, all finishing operations, etc.) to track such “additional information.”

0008The methods herein automatically produce metrics based on the additional information and the IDs of the computerized devices and applications used to generate the different printable items using the analytics engine. In addition, such methods can automatically predict demand for printing-related devices, printing-related supplies, and/or printing-related services at printing device fleet levels, enterprise-wide levels, national levels, and/or world-wide levels. Such predictions can be made using the analytics engine and can be based on such metrics.

0009Various system embodiments herein use an analytics engine device, and at least one computerized device operatively (meaning directly or indirectly) connected to the analytics engine device. Each of the computerized devices includes a print driver, a processor operatively connected to the print driver, an input/output device operatively connected to the processor, etc. The processor is also operatively connected to a printing engine and the analytics engine device.

0010The processor receives an instruction to print a printable item and activates the print driver in response. The print driver automatically records identifications of the computerized device and an application providing the printable item to the print driver. The print driver automatically processes the printable item into a print-ready format to produce a driver-output print file. The input/output device automatically provides the driver-output print file from the print driver to a printing device to cause the printing device to print the printable item. The input/output device also automatically sends the identifications of the computerized device and an application providing the printable item to the analytics engine device. The analytics engine device then automatically produces metrics based on the IDs of computerized devices and applications used to generate the different printable items and the “additional information” mentioned above (using data from a plurality of print drivers).

0011These and other features are described in, or are apparent from, the following detailed description.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

0012Various exemplary systems and methods are described in detail below, with reference to the attached drawing figures, in which:

0013<figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 1</figref> is a schematic diagram illustrating a system herein;

0014<figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 2</figref> is a flow diagram illustrating various methods herein;

0015<figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 3</figref> is a flow diagram illustrating various methods herein;

0016<figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 4</figref> is a schematic diagram illustrating systems herein;

0017<figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 5</figref> is a schematic diagram illustrating devices herein; and

0018<figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 6</figref> is a schematic diagram illustrating devices herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

0019As mentioned above, several pieces of printing data such as application type and version, operating system and version, format conversion time, device the document originated from, etc., are available for captured for analytics purposes, but may not be captured. This occurs because print drivers only include data necessary to allow the printing device to perform the printing process in the print files that are output. Print files are output by the print drivers in portable document format (PDF) or PostScript, and such files do not identify anything about the device that created the PDF or PostScript file.

0020The systems and methods herein capture analytics data at the print driver level (and such data is usually not captured either by the application or the printer), and send such information to an analytics engine that in turn compiles the data into useful information at a larger level (e.g., fleet, print shop, enterprise of print shops, national). Such transformed data or intelligence is further used for purposes such as pre-ordering, pricing negotiation, demand forecasting, improve user experience, etc.

0021Data that is useful to print systems (e.g., data for improving the print user experience) is captured at various points within a document workflow system (See <figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 1</figref>). More specifically, <figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 1</figref> illustrates a system <b>100</b> that includes a planning processor <b>102</b>, various pre-press processors <b>104</b>, computerized devices used by the printing engines <b>106</b> (such as a digital front end (DFE); output manager (OM), etc.), various printing engines <b>108</b>, various finishing devices <b>110</b>, different packaging devices, <b>112</b>, etc. Further, print drivers <b>122</b> output print-ready files (e.g., PDF, PostScript, etc.) to a queue that holds the print-ready files until they can be processed by an element of the system <b>100</b>.

0022Generally, as shown in <figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 2</figref>, various computing devices that produce printable items use the print drivers <b>122</b> to supply the print systems <b>100</b> with print ready files. The data analytics engine <b>124</b> takes data from the print driver <b>122</b> and from the various sensors shown in the print systems <b>100</b> to generate useful metrics.

0023With systems and methods herein, the print drivers <b>122</b> capture information that is useful to print providers when the document is submitted for print. A subset of such metrics can include the name of the application that produced the printable item, its vendor, version, etc.; the computing device <b>120</b> the printable item is submitted from, the time taken to convert the entire document into a print ready format (in milliseconds), the operating system the print driver or application runs on, and a special text area to capture the print intent that could be posted to a blog. For example, text entries could be: “I need to print my e-book in color on such media with this kind of finishing, but such is not available in my driver options;” “I find it hard to find the color correction tab in this version of the print driver which I was able to do so easily in the prior version or from another vendor,” etc.

0024Other metrics such as the number of pages, whether the pages are monochrome or color, which device is printed to, the devices characteristics, media selected for printing the job, etc., which are present in the print job ticket are also captured at the print driver <b>122</b>. Additional items captured by the print driver <b>122</b> include what capabilities are actually used vs. what was desired, etc. Additional metrics can be captured at various stages by the print controller <b>106</b>, the printer itself <b>108</b>, finishing <b>110</b> and mail operations <b>112</b>.

0025<figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 1</figref> uses round dots to represent sensors to illustrate how and where data can be captured (at various locations at the global level) in addition to the data captured by the print driver <b>122</b> for use by the data analytics engine <b>124</b>. As shown, the data capture can be done both at production level (production printers) or at the enterprise level (office printers).

0026As shown in <figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 4</figref> below, this data can be sent to a central server <b>200</b> where it can be stored and analyzed by the analytics engine <b>124</b>. This helps in estimating or predicting demand, finding improvements that need to be made to the application (in case of an application that takes too much time to convert, etc.) and advising the print shop managers (at the fleet level) or global managers (in case of a multinational company having print shops at several sites distributed across the globe) to take the appropriate steps much in advance, thus helping them in proper planning and execution.

0027Further, the print driver <b>122</b> can provide a special free-form text area to capture the print intent (or complaints) that could be posted to a blog or helpdesk. The analytics system <b>124</b> thus provides a helpful solution to questions posted within blog sections (e.g., if you want to print N-up a browser's print driver, select “Print Using System Dialog”), or even helps improve the design of a print driver so as to allow a user to select an orientation (portrait or landscape) even in N-up mode. The end user advisory information can be posted back to blogs or social networking sites (or even enterprise wide networking media that communicates with customer support engineers, developers, etc.) for improved user experience. Other confidential information can be sent to the decision authorities.

0028In an alternative, the print drivers <b>122</b> can send data collected to a print server or controller <b>200</b> (e.g., an output manager that controls a fleet of devices) which then sends the data to analytics system <b>124</b>. This is particularly useful when a print driver cannot send data (either due to security policy or due to configuration difficulties) to a data analytics engine directly.

0029Thus, the systems and methods herein give a clear picture of the demand (and supply) situation at the national or global level of consumables and service needed (hence hiring and deployment of service personnel). Further, such systems and methods give a clear picture to the product planners as to what devices, applications, and operating systems are using which printers at a global level. This allows designers to focus and fine tune drivers (e.g., improving time to print ready format) and controllers to those applications and devices, improving their feature level (basic to feature heavy information obtained through the blogs), usage (user experience, also information obtained through the blogs), and error free job submission.

0030Certain devices like smart phones and tablets may not have a sophisticated printer driver installed on them, instead they may use the print driver on a server (e.g., a server that has a print sub-system or print spooler) that enables the capture of information that otherwise cannot be captured by the device/application combination.

0031<figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 3</figref> is flowchart illustrating exemplary methods herein. In item <b>150</b>, these methods begin by receiving, into one or more computerized devices, instructions to print one or more different printable items. The methods herein then automatically activate one or more print drivers on the computerized devices in item <b>152</b> in response to the instructions to print the different printable items. In item <b>154</b>, these methods automatically process the different printable items into print-ready format files using the print driver and, in item <b>156</b>, automatically provide the driver-output print files to printing devices to allow the printing devices to print the different printable items (item <b>158</b>).

0032The methods herein also use the print drivers to automatically record identifications (IDs) of the computerized devices and applications that provided the different printable items to the print drivers in item <b>160</b>. The print-ready format files output by print drivers to printing engines/controllers in item <b>156</b> are devoid of the IDs of the computerized devices and applications that provided the different printable items to the print driver, making it impossible for any of the engines/controllers to track analytics related to such computerized devices and applications.

0033Also, such methods can use the print drivers to record additional information from the computerized devices in item <b>160</b>. Such “additional information” can include, for example, vendor names corresponding to the applications, names and versions of operating systems running on the computerized devices, the time required to create the print-ready format files, characteristics of the printing devices, unused capabilities of the printing devices, etc. Similarly, the print-ready format files produced in item <b>156</b> are devoid of such “additional information.”

0034Thus, conventional print-ready format files that could be produced in item <b>156</b> are devoid of such “additional information” and devoid of the IDs of the computerized devices and applications providing the different printable items to the print driver (that are recorded in item <b>160</b>), making it impossible for conventional printing systems that handle the print-ready format files <b>156</b> (e.g., the print controller, the planning processor, all pre-press operations, all printing operations, all post-press operations, all finishing operations, etc.) to track the metrics that are tracked herein. As shown in item <b>162</b>, the methods herein automatically send the IDs of the computerized devices and applications and the additional information to the analytics engine.

0035In addition, as shown in item <b>160</b>, such method can automatically provide a text entry field for capturing user comments through the print drivers. The methods herein can then automatically send the user comments the analytics engine and/or automatically post the user comments to at least one blog <b>164</b>. A blog is a site (e.g., website) hosting related informational posts and the blog is accessible to the computerized devices over a wide area network (such as the Internet).

0036In item <b>166</b>, the methods herein automatically producing metrics based on the additional information and the IDs of the computerized devices and applications used to generate the different printable items using the analytics engine. In addition, in item <b>168</b>, such methods can automatically predict demand for printing-related devices, printing-related supplies, and/or printing-related services at printing device fleet levels, enterprise-wide levels, national levels, and/or world-wide levels. Such predictions <b>168</b> can be made using the analytics engine and can be based on such metrics.

0037As shown in <figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 4</figref>, exemplary system systems and methods herein include various computerized devices <b>200</b>, <b>204</b> located at various different physical locations <b>206</b>. The computerized devices <b>200</b>, <b>204</b> can include print servers, printing devices, personal computers, etc., and are in communication (operatively connected to one another) by way of a local or wide area (wired or wireless) network <b>202</b>.

0038<figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 5</figref> illustrates a computerized device <b>200</b>, which can be used with systems and methods herein and can comprise, for example, a print server, a personal computer, a portable computing device, etc. The computerized device <b>200</b> includes a controller/processor <b>224</b> and a communications port (input/output) <b>226</b> operatively connected to the processor <b>224</b> and to the computerized network <b>202</b> external to the computerized device <b>200</b>. Also, the computerized device <b>200</b> can include at least one accessory functional component, such as a graphic user interface assembly <b>236</b> that also operate on the power supplied from the external power source <b>228</b> (through the power supply <b>222</b>).

0039The input/output device <b>226</b> is used for communications to and from the computerized device <b>200</b>. The processor <b>224</b> controls the various actions of the computerized device. A non-transitory computer storage medium device <b>220</b> (which can be optical, magnetic, capacitor based, etc.) is readable by the processor <b>224</b> and stores instructions that the processor <b>224</b> executes to allow the computerized device to perform its various functions, such as those described herein. Thus, as shown in <figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 5</figref>, a body housing <b>200</b> has one or more functional components that operate on power supplied from the alternating current (AC) <b>228</b> by the power supply <b>222</b>. The power supply <b>222</b> can comprise a power storage element (e.g., a battery) and connects to an external alternating current power source <b>228</b> and converts the external power into the type of power needed by the various components.

0040<figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 6</figref> illustrates a computerized device that is a printing device <b>204</b>, which can be used with systems and methods herein and can comprise, for example, a printer, copier, multi-function machine, multi-function device (MFD), etc. The printing device <b>204</b> includes many of the components mentioned above and at least one marking device (printing engines) <b>210</b> operatively connected to the processor <b>224</b>, a media path <b>216</b> positioned to supply sheets of media from a sheet supply <b>214</b> to the marking device(s) <b>210</b>, etc. After receiving various markings from the printing engine(s), the sheets of media can optionally pass to a finisher <b>208</b> which can fold, staple, sort, etc., the various printed sheets. Also, the printing device <b>204</b> can include at least one accessory functional component (such as a scanner/document handler <b>212</b>, etc.) that also operate on the power supplied from the external power source <b>228</b> (through the power supply <b>222</b>).

0041Thus, the various system embodiments herein use an analytics engine device <b>124</b>, and at least one computerized device <b>200</b> operatively (meaning directly or indirectly) connected to the analytics engine device. Each of the computerized devices includes a print driver <b>122</b>, a processor operatively connected to the print driver <b>122</b>, an input/output device <b>226</b> operatively connected to the processor <b>224</b><b>224</b>, etc. The processor <b>224</b> is also operatively connected to a printing engine and the analytics engine device.

0042The processor <b>224</b> receives an instruction to print a printable item and activates the print driver <b>122</b> in response. The print driver <b>122</b> automatically records identifications of the computerized device <b>120</b> and an application providing the printable item to the print driver <b>122</b>. The print driver <b>122</b> automatically processes the printable item into a print-ready format to produce a driver-output print file <b>156</b>. The input/output device <b>226</b> automatically provides the driver-output print file <b>156</b> from the print driver <b>122</b> to a printing device <b>204</b> to cause the printing device <b>204</b> to print the printable item. The input/output device <b>226</b> also automatically sends the identifications of the computerized device and an application providing the printable item to the analytics engine device <b>124</b>. The analytics engine device <b>124</b> then automatically produces metrics based on the IDs of computerized devices and applications used to generate the different printable items and the “additional information” mentioned above (using data from a plurality of print drivers <b>122</b>).

0043Many computerized devices are discussed above. Computerized devices that include chip-based central processing units (CPU's), input/output devices (including graphic user interfaces (GUI), memories, comparators, processors, etc. are well-known and readily available devices produced by manufacturers such as Dell Computers, Round Rock Tex., USA and Apple Computer Co., Cupertino Calif., USA. Such computerized devices commonly include input/output devices, power supplies, processors, electronic storage memories, wiring, etc., the details of which are omitted herefrom to allow the reader to focus on the salient aspects of the systems and methods described herein. Similarly, scanners and other similar peripheral equipment are available from Xerox Corporation, Norwalk, Conn., USA and the details of such devices are not discussed herein for purposes of brevity and reader focus.

0044The terms printer or printing device as used herein encompasses any apparatus, such as a digital copier, bookmaking machine, facsimile machine, multi-function machine, etc., which performs a print outputting function for any purpose. The details of printers, printing engines, etc., are well-known and are not described in detail herein to keep this disclosure focused on the salient features presented. The systems and methods herein can encompass systems and methods that print in color, monochrome, or handle color or monochrome image data. All foregoing systems and methods are specifically applicable to electrostatographic and/or xerographic machines and/or processes.

0045In addition, terms such as “right”, “left”, “vertical”, “horizontal”, “top”, “bottom”, “upper”, “lower”, “under”, “below”, “underlying”, “over”, “overlying”, “parallel”, “perpendicular”, etc., used herein are understood to be relative locations as they are oriented and illustrated in the drawings (unless otherwise indicated). Terms such as “touching”, “on”, “in direct contact”, “abutting”, “directly adjacent to”, etc., mean that at least one element physically contacts another element (without other elements separating the described elements). Further, the terms automated or automatically mean that once a process is started (by a machine or a user), one or more machines perform the process without further input from any user.

0046It will be appreciated that the above-disclosed and other features and functions, or alternatives thereof, may be desirably combined into many other different systems or applications. Various presently unforeseen or unanticipated alternatives, modifications, variations, or improvements therein may be subsequently made by those skilled in the art which are also intended to be encompassed by the following claims. Unless specifically defined in a specific claim itself, steps or components of the systems and methods herein cannot be implied or imported from any above example as limitations to any particular order, number, position, size, shape, angle, color, or material.